Soil acts as both matter and metaphor in a new collaborative exhibition looking at the relationship between colonisation and environmental change, and asking how we can perceive land holistically—as both a tangible element needing our care, and a theoretical territory with contested history. 13 practitioners explore these themes in The Soils Project at TarraWarra Museum of Art.
Not just an exhibition, The Soils Project is an ongoing research-based project that began in 2018 as a collaboration between three institutions: TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, Victoria; the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands; and Struggles for Sovereignty, an art collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. They have been working with various practitioners—artists, writers, curators, activists—to explore the liminal spaces between land as environment, and land as territory.
The project has existed in various forms: a public webinar series, a workshop, a curatorium, and now an exhibition, featuring both local and international artists exhibiting existing and newly commissioned works. The latter includes a large-scale photographic installation by Bangerang artist Peta Clancy and a series of earth maps of the site of Coranderrk Aboriginal Station in a collaborative project by Quandamooka artist Megan Cope and Australian artist Keg de Souza.
International representation includes Dutch artists Wapke Feenstra and photographer Diewke van der Heuvel; and from Indonesia, founder of the grassroots community organisation Institut Mosintuwum, Lian Gogali, and artists Riar Rizaldi and Moelyono.
View, in pictures, the truths revealed as The Soils Project digs deep.
Peta Clancy, detail from the photographic installation birrarung ba brungergalk, 2023, ink-jet pigment print, 115 x 150 cm. Courtesy the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney.
Megan Cope and Keg de Souza, Soil Stories of Coranderrk, 2023, chromatography paper, silver nitrate, various, soil samples from Coranderrk selected and sourced with the guidance of Wandin Family members, glass and metal 11 parts; 33 cm diam. each installation view, The Soils Project, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2023
Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane / Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Andrew Curtis.
Wapke Feenstra Boerenzij–Rural Migration in Rotterdam South, 2019 (video still) video duration: 00:33:40. Courtesy of the artist.
Wapke Feenstra Boerenzij–Rural Migration in Rotterdam South, 2019 (video still) video duration: 00:33:40. Courtesy of the artist.
Diewke van den Heuvel, Beluga, 2022, from the series Melting Heart digital print on recycled pet-bottle fabric dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Diewke van den Heuvel, Cave, 2022, from the series Melting Heart digital print on recycled pet-bottle fabric dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Riar Rizaldi, Kasiterit, 2019 (video still) HD video, color, Indonesian with English subtitles, video duration 00:18:22. Courtesy of the artist.
Riar Rizaldi, Kasiterit, 2019 (video still) HD video, color, Indonesian with English subtitles, video duration 00:18:22. Courtesy of the artist.
Moelyono, Tandak Samira, 2023, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 190 x 270 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
The Soils Project
TarraWarra Museum of Art
5 August—12 November
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